Some hedge fund managers are shorting the retail industry amid what they think could be a brick-and-mortar meltdown akin to the subprime mess. As Urban Outfitters' CEO Richard Hayne observed earlier this year, a dramatic overbuilding of stores has "created a bubble, and like housing, that bubble has now burst.”

"The relentless rise of online shopping is posing a huge challenge for US shopping malls, developers and investors who own shares and bonds in household names."